Two of the oldest Anglican parishes in the United States voted to split from the Episcopal church on Sunday over its liberal attitude on issues such as homosexuality.
The move by Falls and Truro churches in Virginia may presage a larger fracturing of the American branch of the 77 million-strong worldwide Anglican Communion, headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.
The two evangelical parishes near Washington are attended by officials of the US administration. Both were established before the war of independence, and the first US president, George Washington, sometimes worshipped at Falls. They have grown disenchanted with the Episcopalian leadership, particularly after the election of the gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in New Hampshire in 2003.
Moves to separate accelerated earlier this year following the election of the church’s first woman presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, and the leadership’s refusal to disown Bishop Robinson or show repentance for his consecration.
The two churches are likely to be joined by up to eight other parishes in Virginia, which would cost the diocese 10% of its membership and a large slice of its revenues. They will seek alternative oversight from conservative African bishops who oppose any accommodation on homosexuality.
The Rector of Truro, the Reverend Martyn Minns, has been appointed a bishop of the church in Nigeria, so he can minister to like-minded parishes.
They plan to set up a body called the Anglican District of Virginia under the auspices of the Nigerian primate, Archbishop Peter Akinola, who backs the Nigerian government’s plans to make even meetings of gays illegal. The Rector of Falls, the Reverend John Yates, told the New York Times: ”The Episcopalian ship is in trouble, so we’re climbing over the rails down to various little lifeboats.”
The Right Reverend Peter Lee, the Virginia diocesan bishop, told the New York Times: ”Our Anglican tradition has always been a very large tent in which people with different theological emphases can live together. I am very sorry some in these churches feel that this is no longer the case for them.”
The move came as English conservative evangelicals, who last week demanded the right to select their own like-minded candidates for ordination — bypassing liberal bishops of whom they disapproved — were criticised by a leading ally, the Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright.
Wright, who has opposed any change in Church of England policy towards homosexuality, described their demands as arrogant and self-serving, and a power-play calculated to divide and marginalise more moderate evangelicals who disagreed with their hardline demands. – Guardian Unlimited Â